Chapter 5
1565 Words
The knock on her bathroom door can only be Tank, and since she is used to their unisex showers at the station, she calls for him to come in. She knows he wouldn’t be bothering her at the moment if it wasn’t important.
He clears his throat, and she hears the door close behind him, making her slide the shower door open just a little.
“What?”
“We found cameras and listening devices all over your apartment. We’ve removed them, and, well, you and I both know this guy is clever, so there might be more.”
She stands straight in front of the water taking it all in and quickly starts to look around the shower for anything that might look suspicious. Suddenly, she feels incredibly vulnerable and exposed, and her previous confidence is shattered!
“Look, Gem, he knows we are here, and he knows we combed through your place. He probably also knows that I’m going to be staying here. Are you sure you don’t want to move to a safe house?”
She closes the taps to make sure that if he has anything in her bathroom he might use to listen to, he will hear her loud and clear.
“Yes, I mean. I’m not going to leave my apartment. This psycho is trying to scare me into something, and I’m going to find out what the hell it is. You can stay if you want or go home. I’m fine to look after myself.” She pops her head around the door again, grabbing her towel.
When she climbs out, her towel is wrapped around her thin yet toned frame and a scowl is fixed on her face.
“Are the guys still here, or can I go to my bedroom to get dressed?”
“It’s just us. They finished their investigation for now. Gem, we need to talk about this.” He follows her, but she slams her bedroom door in his face, and she hears him sigh on the other side of the door.
What was he expecting? That she was going to sit in her towel while he tries to convince her to move to some dirty old safe house where she doesn’t know the surrounding area or the house and will probably stand a better chance of being captured because of that fact!
The next thing she heard was him talking to someone, and as she was pulling her shirt over her head, her phone rang… It’s the unknown caller…
“Ah, my darling. I saw that your friends had a great time with the treasure hunt I planted for them. None of the cameras works, of course, so there is no use in trying to trace any signals. I’ve sent dinner for both you and your partner. Please eat it this time. Sweet dreams.”
She is so shocked that she just stares at her phone when Tank knocks on her door.
She walks over to the door and when she opens it, she finds him standing there with take-out in his hand from the same store as the one the killer used previously.
“From the look on your face, I take it he called you again?” Tank frowns.
“Yeah, dinner is for both of us.” She explains what he told her while she grabs plates and starts to dish them up for them.
“Are you insane?! We can’t eat that!”
“If I don’t, we will find another poor girl murdered tomorrow!” She turns around to look him in his eyes.
Her heart is racing and her breathing is shallow as adrenaline pushes through her body.
“The previous food wasn’t poisoned, and I’m starving. You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to, but I suggest you do.” She walks over to the living room table where the huge bunch of flowers is still standing.
Picking up the vase, she moves it over to the coffee table. She would like nothing more than to dump it in the dustbin, but who knows what he would do then. At the moment she has no idea how he is watching her, and she can’t take any chances.
She sits down and Tank joins her while they eat in silence.
“Okay,” He starts after he is done eating and has wiped his mouth.
“What do we know so far?”
She explains what she knows about the girls they’ve been able to identify, and that she wants to go through the files of missing girls that fit the descriptions of the victims. She pulls the pile of files closer and puts them down on the table while he clears the dishes.
He returns a little while later with coffee and grabs one of the files to compare to the victim files.
“You know we have an entire department that could do this with just one press of a button.” He frowns after reading through the first file.
“Yeah, and how long will it take them to come back with the results? You know how backed up their caseload is. If I can give them something to work with, it will go faster.” She doesn’t look up but gets up to grab a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, pouring each of them a drink.
“You know, I can see her in you.”
“Who?”
“Bada*s”
“DUH!”
Gemma sits back in her chair and puts her feet up on the table taking a sip of her drink. She remembers when she just started in the little station in the town she grew up in. Captain Bradley wasn’t impressed that they didn’t have the necessary technology to track criminals as they do in the city.
She’s the one that taught Gemma how to do the work without having the technology. In the end, she seemed to prefer it this way. She always said that she never thought about how much information went unnoticed through using technology that could only be seen when you read through everything.
“Fine, then I guess we had better get through it.” He sighs, and she realizes that she was saying it out loud and not just thinking about it.
She takes her feet off the table and opens the next file. They go through the details until the early hours of the morning until she finally agrees to go to bed.
***
She wakes up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and a fresh headache. Finding the aspirin in her bathroom cupboard, she brushes her teeth and washes her face before making her way to the kitchen where she finds Tank busy making breakfast.
“Really? How do you eat so early in the morning… And how the hell do you look so fresh?”
He hands her a plate and walks to the dining room table where she finds the coffee. She takes a huge sip and breathes a sigh of relief.
“Wanna move in together?” She grins at him, and he scoffs.
“No thanks, you are too emotional for my taste.” He winks at her, and she feels like throwing the plate of food at him.
But it smells delicious, making her decide that she would rather eat it and keep him around for as long as she can. Having him around to cook breakfast is a lot better than grabbing a cup of coffee and a stale sandwich on the way to the station.
When they are done and dressed, they leave for the station. With the files in hand, they have a pretty good idea of who the rest of the girls are. All they need now is confirmation from the victim identification unit.
As soon as they have that, they can inform the families of the untimely deaths of their family members. She’s always thought about how peculiar that sentence is. Untimely death…
But as soon as they arrive at the station and before they can present the information to VIU, Cappie calls them to his office.
“I want you off this case.” He is standing behind his desk with his arms folded.
Gemma stares him down.
“And I’ve told you I’m not going to. The killer has this twisted reality where he has a personal bond with me.”
“That’s why I want you off this damn case! Paterson! He bugged your apartment for goodness sake! Don’t you see the danger you are putting yourself in?”
“Tell me something, sir?” She puts her hands on her hips.
“If this was Bada*s… Would you be telling her to get off the case or would you let her carry on with the investigation?”
His hesitation is enough an answer for her, and she turns around walking out of his office without another word. Tank catches up to her and tries to explain that they are all just worried about her safety, and she gives him an angry look for his trouble.
She might still be a young detective, but she was trained by the best. If they can’t believe in her doing her job, she will just have to show them she can do it.
- Writer
